"We know we're emerging from the darkness of winter with the first mention of the ‘F’ word. That’s right, festival season is here and we'll be setting up camp in our calendars, wardrobes, fashion pages, social networks and no doubt evenings and weekends as friends recall their hedonistic experiences.
The festival that started it all was Woodstock in 1969. Mid 'Peace and Love' bohemia, Woodstock was soundtracked by music legends including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Who. The festival was filled with hippies wearing flares, floppy hats, fringing and round sunglasses... sound familiar? Yes, this spring/summer season's 70s trend creates the perfect Woodstock-esque revival.
First up on the international festival calendar is Coachella in LA. Gone are the days of grimy tents, feral toilets, unwashed crusties and filthy burgers, this is LA - so celebs and fashionistas have gate-crashed. It gives them a chance to air their love for music and showcase how down-to-earth they are - at least while the paps are present and the cameras are rolling anyway. With a captive audience of America's finest comes the inevitable scramble of fashion brands attempting to capture an A-list glance, so the fashion party ensues - including the Mulberry pool party. As celebs can always sniff out a decent goodie bag and don’t relish the alternative of actually sitting in a field listening to a live gig – the turnout was predictably good.
Among many famous faces, Mulberry enjoyed the company of Nicole Ritchie, Alexa Chung and Eliza Doolittle. While each dutifully wore an item from Mulberry’s collection, Nicole took the PR opportunity to don shorts from her own label – House of Harlow, Alexa wore a boring Phillip Lim lace mini dress and Elisa - keeping her style identity as consistent in the L.A heat as she does in the London rain - wore a cropped T-shirt, tiger print shorts and her signature Nikey high-tops.
The prize for the best 70s renaissance outfit goes to Vanessa Hudgens; she must have done some style-revision as she’s so young even her parents probably haven’t heard of Woodstock. Still, she got it right in John Lennon sunglasses, feathered accessories, clashing prints and a felt hat. Kate Bosworth also scored high wearing a stars and stripes T-shirt, white cut offs and desert boots. The loser look goes to Kelly Osbourne. She channelled the wrong decade and decided a horrible knee length tea dress would work – I'm not even sure where she would have found a tea dress this season.
As festivals have become a way of life, fashion brands are paying homage to this in their collections. Etro (below), D&G and Stella McCartney have produced some boho printed dresses for the occasion, to be teamed with a fedora, a retro floppy hat or a washer-woman bright printed headscarf. To make capsule back-packing simpler, ASOS even have a festival fashion page on their site, outlining all the essentials. Personally, my uniform will consist of Paige Denim cut offs, my beloved vintage Pucci headscarf, 70s oversized shades and a cross body bag from Mimco.
As the cost of festivals rise with global warming temperatures, you can always pitch a tent somewhere with your MP3, wear some heels and call it 'Glamping' – well, if it’s good enough for TOWIE...
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As festivals have become a way of life, fashion brands are paying homage to this in their collections. Etro (below), D&G and Stella McCartney have produced some boho printed dresses for the occasion, to be teamed with a fedora, a retro floppy hat or a washer-woman bright printed headscarf. To make capsule back-packing simpler, ASOS even have a festival fashion page on their site, outlining all the essentials. Personally, my uniform will consist of Paige Denim cut offs, my beloved vintage Pucci headscarf, 70s oversized shades and a cross body bag from Mimco.
As the cost of festivals rise with global warming temperatures, you can always pitch a tent somewhere with your MP3, wear some heels and call it 'Glamping' – well, if it’s good enough for TOWIE...
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